80% of small businesses use email marketing to help with customer retention. It is estimated that 4.73 billion people will use email by 2026. That is approximately 59% of the world’s population. Over 347 billion emails are sent and received every day.
Businesses of all sizes use email marketing to connect with their customers. Organizations ranging from multi-national corporations to your local hair salon send promotional messages via email. My clients like Comizio Orthodontics, DermAesthetics Anti-Aging, Laser and Medical Skin Care Center, among others, use email marketing to engage with their customers.
Here are 12 strategies to strengthen your email marketing efforts:
1. Preview the links in your email before you send the message.
Check that the links in your email work and are relevant. Sometimes business owners duplicate the previous email that they sent, changing the subject line, words and pictures. One detail to remember is to change the links that you are sending people to if necessary. Additionally, check the grammar and spelling of your messages to maintain professionalism.
2. Include a review spotlight in your emails.
Showcase your customers’ positive reviews in your emails. For example, my medical aesthetics clients include a positive review that a client provided internally or one that the person posted on Google, Facebook, or Yelp. You can include feedback that you received from clients via emails and text messages that they sent you. Remove the client’s name for privacy reasons.
3. Update the social media icons and remove any potentially outdated ones.
Remove the Google+ icon from your emails because Google+ no longer exists. Some email templates have social media icons built into them, so just make sure they are up-to-date.
4. Remove un-engaged people from your email list so they do not count towards your monthly bill.
You may be paying a monthly amount for your email marketing software like Mailchimp, Constant Contact, iContact, ConvertKit, or others. Identify the inactive subscribers, send them re-engagement emails, keep the people that re-engage with your emails, and remove the inactive people from your database. That may reduce your monthly bill. Perform a pruning campaign like this at least once a year to remove the dead wood from your email list.
I implemented a pruning campaign for my client in the feng shui and architectural industry. Before the pruning campaign, their monthly payment to Mailchimp was $288.52 per month. After the pruning campaign, the payment went down to $152.43 per month, reducing the monthly payment by 47%. That is a savings of approximately $1,633 per year. After the pruning campaign, the business’ email open rate has been an average of 51%, an improvement from its previous performance.
5. Include a “refer a friend” form in your emails.
One of my clients in the medical aesthetics industry added a refer-a-friend form to the automated emails that their patients receive before and after their appointments. 8 people have used the form to refer friends to the practice in the last 7 months. The business may not have received those referrals if the form was not in those emails.
6. Track your metrics and know your numbers.
Identify which of your emails was opened the most in the last 90 days. See what links your subscribers clicked on the most. These insights serve as market research, allowing you to see which topics, services, products, and messages interest your customers the most.
7. Make sure your dmarc setting has been set up to account for the changes from Google and Yahoo.
As of February 1st, 2024, Google and Yahoo started enforcing new rules. You need to add a setting called “dmarc” to your email settings. Adding this information increases the chances of your marketing emails reaching the primary inbox for your clients who use Gmail or Yahoo. If you do not add this information, Gmail and Yahoo will put your emails in the spam folder or reject them altogether.
8. Bring your latest customers into your email system before you send your next email.
Oftentimes, your email marketing software and your customer relationship management software are not connected. For example, Mailchimp may be your email marketing software and PatientNow may be your customer relationship management software. Before you send your next promotional email, make sure you bring your latest customers from PatientNow into Mailchimp so they can receive your marketing emails.
9. Put call-to-action buttons in your emails.
In your marketing emails, put a clickable button that prompts your customers to dial your phone number. Underneath that button, put another clickable button that brings people to a form that they can fill out. Test having both buttons or just one. If you are sending emails outside of business hours, use the button that brings people to a form on your website. During business hours, include the phone call button because your phone lines are open.
10. Find what time works best to send emails to your audience.
Test different days and times when you send your emails. A hair salon may find that Sunday afternoons work well because people are relaxing and browsing through their email inbox. If so, that would be a good time to send a promotional email with a link to your online booking page. Your customers can use that link to choose which service they want to book and on what day.
11. Test different subject lines.
Your subject line impacts whether people will open your emails or not. You can test two benefits, one in each subject line. For example, look and feel fabulous this summer vs get gorgeous, glowing skin.
12. Test different content inside of the emails.
See which email gets more clicks, a long message or a short one. Compare an email with one picture vs an email with three pictures. Does your audience prefer the short-and-sweet style or a long, detailed message? Test them out to find out.
Bringing it all together:
When harnessed correctly, email marketing can be a valuable promotional tool for your business. Looking forward to seeing you leverage this marketing channel to grow your business.
Want a marketing professional to strengthen your email marketing and use it to grow your business? Click here to schedule a 15-minute discovery call with Michael to discover if you both are a good fit to work together.
